As the rest of the world worries about the state of Test cricket, the one-day game seems in rude health, especially when New Zealand and England are playing each other. Another thriller ended with England winning by four runs here in Wellington to lead 2-1 in the series with two to play.
Kane Williamson, returning to the XI having recovered from a hamstring injury, looked to be seeing the Black Caps home to their target of 235 with his 11th ODI hundred. The remarkable elements of the knock were not just limited to the bare facts of a hundred made in a seemingly successful chase. No one else made more than 49, limited by the uncertainty of the pitch beneath them.
Williamson hit Tom Curran over mid-on for the boundary off the first ball of the penultimate over to take him to three figures, from 137 balls. But Curran fought back, ensuring only three came off the last five deliveries, handing Chris Woakes 15 to play with in the final over. A six over square-leg cut that to five needed from two balls. A dot – five from one – followed by a perfect wide yorker from England’s go-to death bowler proved too much for the best batsman on show.
A grafting victory on a slow pitch that was breaking up as early as the second over is not something this England side are known for. Eoin Morgan, their top scorer with 48, while critical of the Westpac drop-in pitch, appreciated the nature of the win and the way he and Ben Stokes steered the side to a defendable total.
“We’re not known as a side that wins games on them,” he said of the surface. “Fighting our way to a competitive total, a lot of it was probably judging the pitch.
“It was quite fortunate that me and Ben had scored runs the other day [62 and 63 not out respectively] so we were in a good head space to compare wickets. We made a logical decision that it wasn’t going to be a 270 wicket. New Zealand started well, but they never really got away from us, which reinforced the wicket was staying the same.”
Put in to bat, England were 68 for three before Morgan’s throwback performance: a 71-ball stay built solely on waiting for loose balls. A partnership of 71 from 116 balls with Stokes provided the guts of England’s total. Vital cameos from Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali ensured 234 was reached.
Upon passing 130, this became England’s highest score at this ground against New Zealand, which goes to show how they have stunk this place out in the past.
In New Zealand’s reply, Colin Munro’s dismissal set about a collapse from 80 for one in which five wickets fell – all to spin – in the space of 42 balls. Adil Rashid nabbed Munro, courtesy of a brilliant diving grab at cover by Stokes.
Moeen was on a hat-trick when he snared the left-handers Mark Chapman (caught at slip) and Tom Latham (lbw) in the 21st over, before Rashid bagged Henry Nicholls for a duck. Colin de Grandhomme became Moeen’s third victim, hitting to Woakes at long-on.
“The two spinners came on and turned the game on its head,” said Morgan of his two twirlers, whose combined 20 overs returned five for 70. Figures of three for 36 saw Moeen nab the man-of-the-match award.
The game moved back New Zealand’s way when Mitchell Santner made 96 with Williamson for the seventh wicket. There was more catching controversy when, on two, Santner found Jason Roy at midwicket. A low catch was taken and, on review, it was ruled not out.
Roy was involved in a similar incident in January, in a Twenty20 at Hobart, when he caught Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, on 59 at the time, but was overruled by the television umpire. Maxwell went on to win the match with a century.
Roy’s subdued reaction, though, was not due to uncertainty – he believed he had taken the catch – but because of a quirk in the rules that England discovered after Hobart. “After that decision, we were told if you can, don’t celebrate by throwing the ball away. Throw it in until the ball is dead,” Morgan said.
“He [Roy] celebrated in Hobart and they ran one. We were told that if he threw it up, celebrated, and the ball went over the rope, it would be five overthrows if it was given not out. It went around the team and everybody knows that now.”
Thirty-nine runs later, Santner was on the end of some bad luck when a Williamson straight drive flicked the finger of Woakes, to run him out at the non-striker’s end. From then on, there was nothing fortuitous about the manner Woakes and England closed out a pulsating encounter.
